Category: Non-Fiction Literary Writer
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My Mission Blood: Tales From The Block!
My Mission Blood: Tales from the Block! is a collaboration with residents born and bred in the Mission District of San Francisco. Contributors sent an old photo of themselves on Mission streets, with a caption. The photos provide insight into the visual and narrative streetscapes that these residents built block-by-block. With pain, we see their…
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Untweetable Poems (141 character poems)
Untweetable Poems is a poetry series inspired by the oral histories told to Camarena by Mission District residents. These poems cut across all the themes of the Unsettlers project, and provide community stories in a nugget. In 2011, San Francisco approved a six-year tax break for the tech titan Twitter, and in 2012 the company…
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Matres Dolorosas: A Watershed of Tears
A Watershed of Tears: Arroyo de los Dolores (extract 1/5) Ocean fog protected the Bay from European discovery, until 1769, when explorer Gaspar de Portolá viewed the body of water from a mountaintop. Six years later, on August 5, 1775, the ship San Carlos sailed through the golden gate under a moonlit sky. The Huimen…
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Campfire: Eviction Community Stories
On January, 17, 2014, the “village” gathered around a campfire to hark the horrors of no-fault evictions of lifelong Mission residents and other San Franciscans provoked by rampant real estate speculation in the City. Fourteen brave storytellers shared their horrific experiences. Below is the resulting documentary film series Campfire: Eviction Community Stories, consisting of a…
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The Corrido of El Cabe
“The corrido (Spanish pronunciation: [koˈriðo]) is a popular narrative song and poetry form, a ballad. […]It derives largely from the romance, and in its most known form consists of 1) a salutation from the singer and prologue to the story; 2) the story itself; 3) a moral and farewell from the singer. […] Various themes…
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Homicides in the Mission (2008-2013)
Homicides In The Mission (2008), Stats Part I Youth homicide is the leading cause of death among youth ages 15-24 in San Francisco. The year that Adriana Camarena arrived to the Mission (2008), 19 people were killed in the Mission, primarily with use of firearms: Name Age Date of Incident Aproximate Location Justin Lee 40…
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La Llorona: The Twelve Evictions (Essay)
The First Eviction: Memory Once upon a time, long before the Mission was El Barrio and a hipster incubator, it was simply a watershed. From the twin mounds to the west, a myriad of rivulets and creeks tumbled into the crevices below. The most robust creek coursed east towards the middle of the valley, engorging…
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Breaking Bland in the Mission
It is 7 a.m. in The Mission. Dogged Latino migrants carve the pavement to the bus stops. Obdurate homeless undock their shopping carts and billow away with garbage bag sails. Mulish children are towed to school by unyielding parents late for work. Caffeine-addicted professionals shudder into the cafés. Little old Catholic ladies resolutely bend their…
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Street Food
First Published in n+1, issue 14, Summer 2012 The camotero used to come out at night to sell roasted sweet potatoes (camotes). He kept them warm in a metal stovepipe on wheels that released a whistle to announce his presence on a street. In the summer, the sound carried throughout the La Condesa neighborhood of Mexico…